Champion jockey Douglas Whyte is more than happy for Hot Pepper's two-year-old season to be over after yesterday's win in the Gallop Plate (1,000m), but the best is all ahead.
A heavily-backed and long odds-on favourite, firming from HK$20 early to HK$15 by post time, the Dennis Yip Chor-hong-trained Hot Pepper lent some weight to the highly rated form behind his debut conqueror Bolero when he came from behind to win the griffin event up the straight, but it may be the last time he ever does win over that course.
'I think he's a nice horse for next season,' said Whyte, who kicked off his treble with the two-year-old.
'But when I got off him today, I said to Dennis 'if you run him again over 1,000m, he'll get beaten for sure'. It really isn't what he's about and everything that the horse has done since his first-up run was giving the signal that he wants 1,400m, or even a mile.
'And he didn't have the same speed in his race today but he had the benefit of the experience over most of them and was just too good,' he added.
Fortunately, to save punters who like to take the short odds, Whyte said he understood that Hot Pepper's season is now finished.